What Panthers would look like now if they followed Mel Kiper mocks

Here’s a fun exercise put together by Jimmy Kempski at the Philly Voice. Let’s imagine what the Carolina Panthers would look like today if they had taken Mel Kiper’s projected first-round picks each year?

They would be a whole lot different, that’s for sure.

Here’s a chart that shows who Kiper initially picked for the Panthers and who they actually drafted in the Cam Newton era.

Year

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

Mock

Nick Fairley

Dre Kirkpatrick

Sheldon Richardson

Brandin Cooks

Andrus Peat

Emmanuel Ogbah

Leonard Fournette

Actual

Cam Newton

Luke Kuechly

Star Lotulelei

Kelvin Benjamin

Shaq Thompson

Vernon Butler

Christian McCaffrey

Very interesting.

Obviously, missing out on Newton and Kuechly would have changed the entire identity of the team. They are the two franchise cornerstones that Marty Hurney found during his last tenure with the team and what they’ve been building on ever since. Fairley and Kirkpatrick are fine players. They’re also not in the same league as Cam and Luke. Score two points for reality.

After that, it’s a different story. Getting Richardson instead of Lotulelei in ’12 would have been a nice upgrade in retrospect. Ogbah over Butler and Cooks over Benjamin would have been preferred, as well.

It’s too early both in the morning and in their careers to compare McCaffrey and Fournette.